


summer’s snow

by exyandreil



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Canon? what Canon, Epistolary, Fluff, M/M, Soulmate AU, long distance, no really i can’t remember anything i’m sorry if this seems wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 06:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17844089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exyandreil/pseuds/exyandreil
Summary: he looked like the god of sunshine. golden hair and honeyed eyes. his demeanour wasn’t as sweet as he looked, but the silence seemed to fit with him





	summer’s snow

**Author's Note:**

> it’s non capitalised because!!! i don’t know why, it just is. this was fun to write. too much i wanted to say, too little time. i hope you have a good time reading it <3

 

soulmates were never a concept that neil could identify with. any time they were bought up, he forced himself to forget about it. that nobody was out there who was a perfect match. nobody would be sending him letters when he turned nineteen, it wasn’t a reality for him. they were a thing that only happened in dramas, a story line made up to sell happiness. neil knew getting a soulmate wasn’t going to be a part of his story, he just had to live with that. 

 

to everyone else on the planet, getting to know who you matched up with, your better half, was the highlight of their nineteenth birthday. the years leading up to it, you’d get a feeling. some started when they were eleven, some a few hours before the big day. you’d see the colour of their eyes, feel their presence next to you, know what their lips would feel like against your own. teenagers would gossip in the cafeterias about how blue their soulmates’ eyes were, how soft their hair probably felt, the way their laugh had that perfect lilt to it. it was a rite of passage for everyone. you had to have a soulmate. a better half. 

 

neil made it up every single time. as long as he kept the details uniform as he ran from place to place, he didn’t care. in florida she had a knack for telling jokes about cats. in kentucky he was always dyeing his hair until it felt like straw. wisconsin they had dimples that were a gift from the gods, indiana was where he had tattoos all up his arms. all lies. he just didn’t care. his need for survival was far greater than his want of someone to call his own. he just brushed those feelings aside. pushed them away. he didn’t have time for them. not a single second. 

 

* * *

 

“nobody cares about you and erik.”

 

“you care, otherwise you wouldn’t say anything,” nicky scoffed and sat back in his seat. more like leaned back. “it’s not too long until you get your letter you know?”

 

“wow, a stupid ass letter. i really care about that.”

 

“it’s romantic!”

 

“i don’t care.” andrew crushed the remnants of his cigarette underneath his shoe. he was bitter at the world, lost to the fact he had no control over his future, that he was handing it all to a stupid letter. 

 

“andrew…” he took a deep breath, the exhale coming out as a gentle breeze of vapour around him. 

 

“i’m already nineteen, don’t you think they would’ve showed up by now?”

 

“they might not be nineteen yet, aaron didn’t get one from katelyn until the start of last month.”

 

“yeah nicky, and it’s the start of this one. fucking think about what you say next time.” with that, he walked back inside to their dorms, where he’d be faced with aaron and his stupid soulmate. 

 

sure, he’d been seeing things about his soulmate, but they never stayed the same. different shades of brown or black hair, once jumping to blonde for a couple months. green eyes, brown eyes, never blue eyes. nothing ever stayed the same whenever he saw him. always something that couldn’t be touched, couldn’t be matched. nicky said it was like seeing an angel, aaron said it was like finding out about something you never knew existed. how was andrew meant to find something like that when it was always changing? always melting away into something new, like ice when struck with a sunbeam? it was fucking difficult. he wished he never had a soulmate to begin with. 

 

* * *

 

january nineteenth. neil was turning nineteen. well, abram was. neil was turning nineteen in seventy one days. but that didn’t matter. all that mattered was the mail on his doormat. he didn’t have classes today, the scheduling done by his personal tutor at seattle community college helped with that, all he had to worry about was the mail. anyone could point out the letters but nobody knew how they ended up in the mail system, it was all a stroke of luck. crisp white sheets folded gently inside of a pastel pink envelope, with a heart sticker on the seal. the writing was cursive, neil knew from all the times he’d seen the letters thrusted in his face by fevered girls bragging about how their soulmate was already the boy there were currently dating. 

 

but those details were besides the point. breakfast came first. that consisted of yesterday’s leftovers. salad and pasta, with a few tomatoes thrown in to try and make it a little healthier. when the dishes were thrown in the sink, he showered. then he brushed his teeth. anything to prolong the time until he had to go check, he even fixed his hair. as if cupid would be waiting on the other side of the door, bearing a gleaming white smile and the precious envelope.

 

he wasn’t nervous. not at all. not one bit. 

 

that was before he saw the envelope on his doormat. he didn’t care for daintiness, he didn’t care about persevering the sticker, or making sure the ink didn’t run. he needed to know who it was. now. 

 

_ dear nathaniel abram wesninski, _

 

_ your soulmate is  _ **_andrew joseph minyard_ ** _. he is precisely 152.4 centimetres tall, blonde hair, hazel eyes. he was born on the fourth of november, meaning he is a scorpio. he has a twin brother. he is located in north carolina. his address is PSU 043 Fox Tower, 1005 W. Ashton Ave, Palmetto, NC 140219-3104 _ __   
  


 

_ xxx _

 

neil shut his eyes, clutching the paper a little tighter. andrew joseph minyard. andrew minyard. andrew. 

 

_ andrew.  _

 

shit. 

 

* * *

 

“open it.”

 

“no.”

 

“andrew, open it.”

 

“i’ll do it for you—”

 

andrew snatched the envelope out of his cousin’s hands, clenching his fist around it. “i don’t care about this shit. it’s just going to be some superficial description of a person who i don’t care about.”

 

“yeah but it could be kevin.”

 

“kevin has thea.”

 

“what a shame,” aaron looked up from his phone, he was addicted to this stupid game about making a farm. “fucking open it already.”

 

“please?”

 

andrew gritted his teeth, toes curling in his boots. “fine. fucking… fine.” he ripped the letter open, dropping the envelope to the ground. he ignored the look of despair on nicky’s face as he tried to catch it, failing miserably.

 

_ dear andrew joseph minyard, _

 

_ your soulmate is  _ **_nathaniel abram wesninski_ ** _. he is precisely 160.02 centimetres tall, with frequent changes in his hair and eye colour. he was born on the nineteenth of january, meaning he is a capricorn. he moves frequently. currently, he is located in washington state. his address is 67 st. katherine’s lane, seattle, washington, 192721-0308 _ **_._ ** __   
  


 

_ xxx _

 

“so…”

 

“leave me alone.” luckily andrew had his boots on, letting him storm out as fast as possible. he needed to go to the roof. to breathe. 

 

yes. he knew it would be a boy. but did that mean he wanted the others to know? not yet. he needed time, needed breathing room, needed to calm down. most importantly, he needed to smoke. 

 

* * *

 

_ nathaniel, _

 

_ i guess you’ve opened the letter by now, so this won’t be much of a shock. i’ve never written a serious letter before, i know this is something everyone goes through though. i’m not a pussy, i’ll get over it. anyway, the letter said your hair changes a lot. so do your eyes. what are they like now? just so i can picture you properly. i still can’t.  _

 

_ andrew. _

 

* * *

 

_ andrew, _

 

_ don’t call me that. neil. call me neil. i wish the stupid fucking things let us send shit out ourselves. not leaving them up to their stupid system. if they knew i changed so much, they’d not write my damn name. my hair’s brown now. so are my eyes. i’m assuming your hair is the same blonde colour as in your university photos? i searched you up. goalkeeper for an exy team. interesting. i never actually saw your face before the first letter. now it’s pretty clear.  _

 

_ neil. _

 

* * *

 

 

_ neil, _

 

_ your face was always changing to me. i still don’t get the whole deal with this thing. but yeah. i do play exy. our team’s shit compared to others in the league, but it works out just fine. we’ve been knocked out of the league now. kevin had a fucking meltdown over it. training is carrying on though, our team is still a disaster. anyway, you go to school? i’m stuck here now but… seattle. that sounds nice enough.  _

 

_ andrew.  _

 

* * *

__

 

_ andrew, _

 

_ i go to community college. before you ask, i haven’t chosen my major. i don’t know what i want, and by the time i graduate i’ll be away from here.  _

 

_ neil. _

 

* * *

__

 

_ neil, _

 

_ you like moving a lot, huh? _

 

_ andrew.  _

 

* * *

__

 

_ andrew, _

 

_ you sure like wasting money and time on tiny letters.  _

 

_ neil. _

 

* * *

__

 

_ neil, _

 

_ just following your example.  _

 

_ andrew. _

 

* * *

__

 

_ andrew,  _

 

_ tell me about the foxes. what are they like? _

 

_ neil. _

 

* * *

__

 

_ neil, _

 

_ they’re all stupid. our captain is incredibly driven, stupidly fired up. her boyfriend is like an excitable beagle, always smiling at random shit. their friends are insane, the only decent one is renee, for reasons that i’m not telling you. but she’s a sweetheart. here’s a blonde princess who likes to think she can analyse you with one look, and her boyfriend who’s honestly the worst one. then there’s kevin, the control freak who’s obsessed with exy. my cousin who’s far too gay to think of anything else but his boyfriend. and my asshole of a twin.  _

 

_ andrew.  _

 

* * *

__

 

_ andrew, _

 

_ they sound fun at least. unique. how’s the weather? it’s a common question but i think it’s good to get it out of the way.  _

 

_ neil. _

 

* * *

__

 

_ neil, _

 

_ it’s cold here. you? _

 

_ andrew. _

 

* * *

 

_ andrew, _

 

_ it’s snowing. not horrifically bad, but it’s still snow.  _

 

_ neil. _

 

* * *

 

_ neil, _

 

_ i really hate writing letters. don’t you? _

 

_ andrew. _

 

neil let his eyes gloss over the words before letting them sink in. yeah, the whole pen to paper thing was laborious, but getting something so special in return was worth it. the wait was long, however the words he got in return worth the wait. 

 

to hear that he hated it? that didn’t feel so good. 

 

* * *

 

ten days. 

 

ten days without a letter. normally neil waited for two days until he saw what andrew had sent him. now it was his birthday again, and he wasn’t doing anything special. his class had bought him some cupcakes, but they did that for everyone. he hadn’t been noticed yet. it was neil josten’s birthday, the thirty first of march. he didn’t recall himself ordering anything though. there was no reason for a knock at his door. 

 

he wasn’t expecting what was behind it. he wasn’t expecting his soulmate, fresh from north carolina, at his doorstep. 

 

he was shorter than him, black clothing sticking out like a black sheep in a white herd. there was a dusting of snow on his shoulders, he’d managed the walk over from his car alright. that was black too. of course. but despite the snow, he looked like the god of sunshine. golden hair and honeyed eyes. his demeanour wasn’t as sweet as those eyes looked, but the silence seemed to fit with him.

 

all of it made him smile. his soulmate. no more stupid letters, just him. no more wishing to know what his voice sounded like, when he was right here. with him. 

 

“andrew?”

 

“hi soulmate.”

 


End file.
